ABP sold

[Kelvin Davies]

Associated British Ports (ABP) which operates Southampton, Ipswich, Plymouth, Hull & Swansea ports has been sold to a consortium for

[Ship's Cat]

According to the BBC, the sale, if approved, will mean the ports concerned - including Southampton - will pass into foreign ownership. Will we have nothing left that's British any more? :-(

[Ship's Cat]

At the risk of delving into politics I believe that our all-powerful Prime Minister was quoted as being pleased that there was so much foreign investment in UK companies. That's totally out of order when we're losing everything - we've lost BAA (the airports equivalent of ABP), Cunard and P&O and we're losing ABP, among others. :-x

Other countries have protectionist rules to prevent this sort of thing. Not the UK and it's about time we did.

[Andrew McAlpine]

Faith,

I couldnt agree more, our government needs to understand that there is a defference between foreign investment in british companies and foreign ownership.
Although i did not totally agree with the USA and their stance against the US ports that were brought by DP World at least they had the right idea.
Although the ports business is truly global we should not allow our strategic ports,airports etc to be brought so easily by foreign companies or consortiums that may not have the countries best interests in mind, and i am sure most people from most countries would share this view.

Rgds
Andrew

[Ship's Cat]

I couldnt agree more, our government needs to understand that there is a defference between foreign investment in british companies and foreign ownership. Although the ports business is truly global we should not allow our strategic ports,airports etc to be brought so easily by foreign companies or consortiums that may not have the countries best interests in mind, and i am sure most people from most countries would share this view.

Absolutely.

I understood where the USA was coming from in their opposition to the DP takeover and this country should be just as vocal. I cannot see any other country meekly allowing so much of their own big, important companies being sold off into foreign ownership and I can't understand why Britain does allow it as it is detrimental to the country's standing and interests.

As I hope anyone will understand, my comments do not come from any bigotry, paranoia or dislike of "foreigners" (far from it), just that, as you say, these are strategic places and to sell them off abroad is just short sighted.